Is professional localization necessary? And if so, what are the consequences of not using a localization services company? International trade is a term that encompasses many phases, from importing and exporting, to logistics and market research. Of course most companies choose a team to work on a specific aspect of the whole process of international trade. Yet sometimes a tiny, little, insignificant part may have fallen through the cracks. And this is precisely what happened with the following companies whose slogans were very wrong. Enjoy!
Localization is Imperative to International Trade
- When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, the ad was supposed to read, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” The company thought that the word “embarazar” (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.
- General Motors had a very famous fiasco in trying to market the car Nova in Central and South America. “No va” in Spanish means, “It Doesn’t Go”
- Pepsi’s “Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation” translated into “Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave” in Chinese.
- Coors translated its slogan “Turn It Loose” into Spanish, where it became “Suffer From Diarrhea.”
- Clairol introduced the “Mist Stick,” a curling iron, in Germany only to find out that “mist” is slang for manure. The “Manure Stick” didn’t find a lot of buyers.
- When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures of what is inside, since many people cannot read.
- The Dairy Association that launched the campaign “Got Milk?” in the U.S. decided to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention that the Spanish translation read “Are You Lactating?”
- The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke Company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase meant “Bite The Wax Tadpole” or “Female Horse Stuffed With Wax” depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, ko-kou-ko-le, which can be translated as “Happiness in the Mouth”.
- When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first-class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its “Fly In Leather” campaign literally, which meant “Fly Naked” (Vuela En Cuero) in Spanish.
- When translated into Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan “Finger-Lickin’ Good” came out as “Eat Your Fingers Off”.
- The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, “Salem – Feeling Free,” got translated in the Japanese market into “When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty”.
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